Visit from our cute cousins

So much fun to have some little ones around to make everyone happy!!

My brother and sister-in-law graduated from Law School and in the process of moving from Washington to Las Vegas stopped for a visit. It was so fun to see them! Me and the kids had a great time playing with little Brody and Ryder!! Ryder is such a sweet baby.

Heather, Ryder, and Brody stayed for a week while my Mom, Dad, and Tyson drove the moving van to Las Vegas. It turned out to be a very long drive from Idaho to Las Vegas. At one point my Dad tried to speed things along by going ahead while my Mom and Tyson finished their lunch (they had two cars one was a very slow moving moving van and the other was Tyson's car) well it turned out my Dad had the keys to the other car in his pocket, so Tyson and my Mom were stranded at the gas station while my Dad after making great time had to retrace his steps back to the gas station only adding another 1hr and a half to an already long journey. They also got a flat tire too, but I'll let them tell you about that. I just thought the key story was funny especially if you know my Dad and his need for speed(:

Brody and Kelton!

Kelton and Ryder!

Kara and Ryder!

Brody playing with the train.
This little guy has the cutest little face ever, but don't let that fool you, he can do UFC take downs better than the UFC fighters!

This little guy has lots of energy! It was so fun to have him. He is like a little puppy he gets sooo excited when he sees you and it just makes you feel so good! Who could help but be happy with little Brody around. He is only 2, but is the same height as Halle. It kind of through Halle off for a little bit, but she loved having someone follow her and play all the games she thought of with out complaining.

Heather and little Ryder! I feel so lucky to have such a great sister-in-law. Heather made me a birthday cake and was lots of fun to have around. I was hoping she would get to relax a little after all the packing and moving, but she was always so helpful I don't know if she really got to relax at all!!

Ballet Recital

The girls had their end of the year recital! Like usual I took a ton of pictures of my cute girls. Kara and her good friend. They look the same size except in pictures. They are exactly the same age!
Halle Kara and their two little dance and play friends. Halle was so excited to be on stage. She talked about it for weeks. Every day she would wake up and ask "is this the day we go on stage?"

Halle with her ballet teacher.

Everyone gets flowers after the recital. I learned my lesson after the first few times of being the only one that did not bring flowers. I don't know I thought it was silly to bring flowers, but the girls were so disappointed when they did not get any last time that I finally convinced myself that the flowers were kind of like end of the year trophies.

I have to say they loved their flowers!

The girls practiced and practiced their dance until they were totally worn out, but they finally got it down.

Sweet sisters!

Halle just loves Kara! She wants to do everything like Kara. Sometimes Kara gets annoyed being copied by her little sister, but she is slowly working on seeing her mimicking little sister as a compliment rather than an annoyance.

The guys. Hayden and Kelton skipped the performance this year. Aunt Natalie watched them for us. Usually I make them go, but I decided I really wanted to enjoy the performance rather than listen to two little boys continually ask "How much longer?"

My big girl!

My baby girl.

Daddy and his girls.

It was an all day event. We had the rehearsal that morning complete with a fire drill in the middle of the rehearsal. Then lots of running around and coordinating. Brent worked that day so by the end of the day I definitely needed another shower. I really did not want to get in the picture, but hey If I only got in a picture when I thought I looked cute I don't think I would be in any pictures at all!

Camera is Fixed, but not with out a price!

My camera is finally fixed! Holy Cow I could have bought a new camera for what it cost to fix it, well maybe not the same camera I had, but I could have bought a pretty nice camera! I thought I better do a little update as it seems my kids just keep growing so fast that I can hardly keep up. I'm trying not to feel bad about all the things I'm not doing, and just be happy about what I am able to do. Hopefully my kids will forgive me for my imperfections! A few mornings ago Halle woke and told me "Mom I had a nightmare last night, Daddy had only one big green eye and he was really scary!" Brent as a cyclops is probably pretty scary.

The kids sent me on a treasure hunt to find all of the gifts they made me for Mother's Day! Brent caught my every move on camera. I only incorporated a few of them, and I only put them in because I thought it was funny how many pictures Brent took of me. I don't really like pictures of myself. Pictures of the kids are cute, but of me not so cute!!!

This is me making a really cute face (not), but hey I'm happy! A card from my sweet little Hayden with lots of coupons! I love a homemade gift!

Me with my coaster made by lovely Kara! Kelton also made me a gift that I love! It was a great day.

Kara made me this cute little card and basket at Activity Days! The kids were all really excited to share their gifts with me. Kelton also learned a piano song, "Mother I love you" that he played for me. He had been practicing it at home, but I had not heard it since he had asked me to plug my ears every time he practiced the piano! The kids woke up early and cleaned up the upstairs, made there beds, got all dressed for church, and with Bent's help made me my favorite breakfast pumpkin waffles with lots of blueberries. My other gift was to be early enough to sit on the soft seats at church (yeah). Grandpa made a great dinner and we all got to hang out with Nanny, Grandma Benge and my mom. After dinner we played ultimate Frisbee! Natalie and I were unbelievably good and I am sure next time we play the kids will be fighting over who gets to be on our team. Halle opted to watch and had a little tea party with Nanny. The weather was beautiful, the kids tried not to fight, and Brent made me a nice card and kept the kitchen clean! Who could ask for more!!

Hayden's team won a limo ride! They all filled out their leadership forms and so they won this limo ride! They were soooo excited.

The other day I was wearing a shirt that well it is a little rude. I bought it because I liked the colors and I really did not read what it said, so when the kids were asking what it said, and I was trying to explain that it is a little rude. Kara chimed in trying to make me feel better about myself for wearing it by saying "it's o.k. mom you didn't know it was rude, it's not your fault." Then Hayden chimed in with "actually it is your fault because you are choosing to wear it!" Hey what can I say he keeps me in line!!!

Kelton's class was learning about different careers at school so he drew a picture of himself in the career he wants to be when he grows up. I looked at the picture and said, "You want to work at Inn and Out Burger when you grow up(it was clearly a picture of him working at Inn N Out Burger?" He said, "No but I just could not make up my mind what to draw because I also want to be a fireman, a truck driver, a lawyer, a policeman, a house builder, a banker, a farmer, an engineer, a teacher, (so he named about every other job there is and then he said).................... wow I think I'm gonna be really tired after I get done doing all those jobs!"

Oh and this one last picture was of this amazing full rainbow that appeared in our backyard after a huge crazy hail storm. This is the moment I decided to fix my camera, because I just could not get a good picture no matter how I tried! It was a sign for me to spend the money and fix my camera. I hope I read the sign the right way.